What Women Should Know/Chapter 3
Can a Natural State be called a State of Invalidism?—I have just been glancing at a modern American book, bearing the name of a well-known physician, and treating of the functions and diseases of women, and I have shut it in disgust on finding the same idea which Michelet has so sentimentally elaborated—namely, that woman's natural state is that of invalidism, and that all her peculiar natural functions are unavoidably attended with pain, inconvenience and disability. Speaking of a woman's monthly periods, this physician says: "More or less pain, more or less prostration and general disturbance, at these epochs are universal and inevitable." At the first glance I feel that, as a physician, he ought to know better. But on second thoughts I consider that, as a physician, he only knows of the cases of sickness and suffering, for those who do not suffer of course do not need his assistance. But there never was a greater mistake—a mistake which underlies all the others regarding woman's abilities and disabilities.
Menstruation a Painless Function.—A woman in complete health should menstruate with perfect freedom from pain, and with the least possible inconvenience. She will not even feel prostrated. The only difference at such periods is that she is more liable to weariness and prostration from overexertion. This freedom from suffering is not rare. Menstruation is not a disease, nor should it reduce to a state of even slight temporary invalidism. When all the organs are in health and work in harmony, it will not do so. That it frequently does, I admit; but in these cases there is disarrangement. It is not the result of natural law.
Causes of Inconvenience.—When any inconvenience is felt, it may be depended upon that there is either inherited or organic difficulty, or that improper habits and modes of life and dress, for which the woman herself, her mother or society is responsible, lead to these deplorable results. When one reflects how many false theories are imposed upon women by custom and fashion and notions of propriety, it is not to be wondered at that many women do suffer somewhat, and some women exceedingly, at such periods. But I repeat it—it is not the ordering of nature; and the fact that those who are sterile, and those who are subject to miscarriage, suffer most, bears me out in my belief. These two classes are both removed from a natural condition of health.
First Appearance of the Menstrual Flow.—When proper precautions have been observed, and when there is no organic or inherited difficulty, the girl will, at the right period, be it sooner or later, become subject to the menstrual discharge. This is frequently preceded for some weeks or months by a slight colorless flow, which is an evidence that nature is about her work. There is nothing in this discharge to occasion alarm or require medical treatment.
Apparent Delay in its Appearance.—Even if there should be delay in the appearance of the menses after a girl has reached an age when she may naturally look for them, and when all the symptoms of their approach have been detected, there is still no occasion for uneasiness so long as her health remains unimpaired.
Avoid Quack Medicines.—If the mother cannot suppress her anxiety, let her lay the facts of the case before her family physician, and then repose the utmost confidence in him when he reiterates the statement I make here, that medical treatment is unnecessary. Let her by no means have recourse to the patent medicines the advertisements of which meet our eye in nearly all the public prints. Their use will most probably consign her daughter to a life of suffering, if they do not seal her death-warrant.
Too Little Confidence in Nature.—We are all more or less inclined to have too little confidence in nature, and to place too great faith in the power of drugs. The truth is that nature is fully competent to carry out her own plans in all cases when obstructions are not placed in her way.
Irregularity of the First Menstrual Periods.—The first menstrual discharge may or may not be slight, and frequently it is several months before the second makes its appearance. If the girl's health remains undisturbed, subject only to the nervous and mental fluctuations which are natural to her age, there is no occasion for alarm. After the second or third period, regularity will probably be established.
Erroneous Idea Concerning the Character of the Menstrual Flow.—A notion prevails among ignorant people—one of the traditions handed down from a less enlightened age—that this discharge carries away the bad blood from the system. This is entirely erroneous. It is the same blood as that which courses through the veins, thinned and altered slightly in character by the mucous discharges of the passages through which it flows. If its flow is arrested, serious consequences will ensue; not because the blood retained poisons the system, but because the system becomes deranged in consequence of the suspension of one of the acts of nature.
Frequency of its Appearance and Length of Duration.—Regularity is the main thing in this discharge. Its time of duration and its time of interval may and do differ in individuals. It should last from two to six days, and it may come at intervals of from three to six weeks, though four is the general rule. So long as there is no irregularity, no inconvenience is felt nor the general health impaired, there iз no reason to consider that anything is wrong.
Profuse Menstruation.—Some women are inclined to menstruate too freely. To judge whether this is actually the case, it is necessary to inquire whether they suffer weakness, debility and pain from the discharge, and whether there is any sign of clots. Pure menstrual blood differs from venous blood in that it never clots. When clots are discovered, something is wrong. A simply profuse discharge is, how. ever, not necessarily a bad sign. It is in the nature of some women to menstruate more freely than others, and to check this disposition would do serious harm. When, however, there is no doubt that the menstruation is too profuse, the girl must abstain as much as possible from exercise at these periods, avoid all stimulating food and drink, and if practicable lie in a recumbent position a portion of each day while the flow continues. If this course of conduct does not produce the desired result, let a physician be consulted, and on no account take medicine without his prescription.
Scanty Menstruation.—There is in scanty as in profuse menstruation no fixed standard. The only way is to judge by effects. If, in conjunction with a scanty flow, there be pain, fullness, oppression, headache and other disagreeable symptoms, it is well to try the effects of a more active life before having recourse to medicine. This trouble results most often from sedentary employments. Medicine should only be taken under the guidance of a doctor.
Suppression of the Menses.—The menses are liable to be suppressed by any sudden physical or mental excitement. Exposure to cold will check them. Some women cannot take a cold bath at such times with impunity. Wetting the feet is sufficient with others to entirely stop the menstrual flow. When this happens, the girl should redouble her efforts in the care of her general health, and should indulge in open-air exercise more freely than usual. As the time approaches for her next monthly period, she had better put her feet in warm water for a short time, drink some warm herb-tea, such as rue or tansy, and go to bed. If these simple remedies fail, a doctor's advice is necessary, and no drugs should be taken unauthorized by him. Again I would say, avoid patent medicines.
Chlorosis or Green Sickness.—Chlorosis or green sickness is a disease to which young women are subject. It is called a female disease, though the feminine organs are not especially involved. It is a nervous disease, and the irregularities which constitute an important part of its symptoms are the result rather than the cause. All the organs of the body are more or less involved, and their action interfered with.
Symptoms of Chlorosis.—Its symptoms are lassitude, low spirits, capricious appetite, irregularity and perhaps scantiness in the monthly periods, and a pale complexion with a greenish tinge, from which the disease takes its name.
Results of Chlorosis.—Its results are impoverishment of the blood, nervous prostration, confirmed invalidism, and possibly consumption.
Treatment of Chlorosis.—The attendance of a physician is absolutely necessary, but, aside from this, there is much that parents can do. The best thing in this disorder is change of air and scene. Sea-air and sea-bathing may prove highly beneficial. Free exercise in the open air, nutritious diet, pleasant surroundings, and occupation sufficient to keep both mind and hands busy, yet sufficiently varied not to tire, are all important adjuncts toward a cure.
The Avoidance of Chlorosis.—However, as prevention is better than cure, it is well to consider how green sickness may be avoided. This disease is almost always the result of too close confinement, prolonged sedentary employment, innutritious diet, improper dress, late hours, unnatural excitements and general bad habits, so that a course of life the reverse of all this is the proper one to pursue in order to avoid the disease.
Hysteria.—Hysteria is also an affection of the nerves to which girls and women are subject. A girl who has been favored with a judicious and conscientious mother; who has been allowed to indulge in no stimulating food and beverages; who has never been permitted the dissipation of late hours and exciting romances; who is not over-worked or too closely confined, and who has plenty of healthful and pleasant occupation, will seldom, if ever, be subject to this trouble. My cure for this is the same as for all other ills which female flesh is heir to—proper air, exercise, diet and occupation. To relieve its immediate attacks a piece of assafoetida, the size of a small pea, is excellent. Tincture of Valerian is also a useful and more agreeable remedy. The dose is from half a teaspoonful to a teaspoonful, taken with more or less frequency, as the necessities of the disease seem to indicate. Huxham's Tincture of Bark, and Tincture of Valerian, are excellent to tone up the system and restore nervous and muscular strength. A teaspoonful is a dose. If these mild remedies do not effect a cure, the patient should receive the attention of a competent physician, before the disease becomes a confirmed habit and serious results follow; as by its continuance the patient may become a life-long invalid or imbecile.
Secret Bad Habits.—Not long since the public was startled by a book which gave a frightful view of vice in our country, and especially of the prevalence of self-abuse among the young of both sexes. I cannot believe that one-half this book states is true, though the author may have been conscientious in his statements. Being a physician, he was cognizant of a large number of sufferers from this cause, and he did not stop to draw a comparison between these and the till larger number whom he had no reason to suppose subject to this sin. At least I hope, for the reputation of humanity, that such was the case.
Consideration of this Subject Important to Mothers.—This is a delicate subject to approach, and it is only the absolute obligation I feel under to call the attention of mothers to it that persuades me to mention it at all. As a woman and a mother I feel it my duty to sound a note of warning.
Early Acquisition of Secret Bad Habits.—Secret bad habits are frequently contracted very early in life, while the young child has but the dimmest consciousness of right and wrong in such matters, and at this period it is the mother who is at least partially responsible. It is often the result of want of cleanliness about the private parts. Uncleanness produces itching and irritation, in relieving which these habits are frequently acquired.
Their Acquisition the Result of Improper Associations.—Again, the acquisition of these habits is often the result of improper associations, especially during sleeping-hours. No mother should on any account permit her child to sleep with any young companion or servant. The rule seems a rigid one, but it should be imperatively obeyed. A single night may undo the results of years of watchfulness.
Necessity for Discountenancing Visits among Children which Extend over the Night.—It is frequently the custom for children to spend the night at each others' dwellings for the mere pleasure of companionship. This should never be permitted; and if any young person is forced by circumstances to become a temporary inmate of the house, he or she should be assigned a separate sleeping-apartment. Such universal suspicion may seem cruel in the extreme, but I know that children otherwise well-behaved and possessing excellent traits of character and disposition are yet subject to this failing. I do not bestow any great share of blame upon them, for they have but the faintest consciousness of the moral sin of which they are guilty, and none whatever of the physical evils which result from their wrong doing. If there is fault anywhere, it lies with those through whose culpable carelessness they have had opportunity to acquire evil habits. Nor should a child be put to sleep with a servant, no matter how much confidence one may have in her. Probably nine chances out of ten in either case children would escape contamination, but there is the tenth chance, and it is the mother's duty to avoid all possibility of evil results.
A Mother's Watchfulness over her Own Children.—A mother cannot be too watchful over her own children, even should she have no occasion for suspicion. But this watchfulness must never show itself; for, if guilty, the child will be cautious to conceal its practices; and if not guilty, it will be cruel to wound its sensibilities.
Mode of Training in this Respect.—A mother need seldom or never, except in undoubted cases of secret vice, refer to the subject in the teaching and training of her children. She should teach them habits of cleanliness in regard to those parts, a negligence of which is often alone sufficient to engender this vice in children. She should teach them a proper modesty, not only in regard to others, but of themselves toward their own bodies; and this teaching, properly impressed upon their minds, will be a strong safeguard against this and many other evils.
What Course shall a Mother take with her Daughter in Regard to such Matters?—What shall a mother say to a daughter whom she suspects of being addicted to secret evil habits? Nothing, until she is certain beyond mistake; for it would be the height of cruelty to wound the feelings of an innocent girl by hinting at any doubt of her guiltlessness in this respect. But when there is no longer room for doubt, the mother must do more than give general instruction and exert watchfulness, though neither of these should be omitted.
Necessity of Plain Speaking.—The mother must speak, and speak plainly. If the relations between mother and daughter are as confidential as they ought to be (and if they are not it may safely be set down as the mother's fault), it will not be a difficult task. But, difficult or not, it is no less a duty. There must be no harsh words; all that is said must be actuated by the spirit of kindness. Let the daughter see that she is regarded with pity rather than with anger.
What it is Necessary to Say.—All the functions of her sex, and the physical relations which the two sexes bear toward each other, must be clearly explained to her. No matter if she seems already to have a knowledge of these things. If she hears them repeated seriously and reverently by her mother, she will, no doubt, learn much of importance of which she has heretofore been ignorant, and the whole matter will assume a sacredness in her eyes with which she never before dreamed of investing it in the levity with which she has discussed it with her young companions. She must be particularly impressed with the sacredness of these things, and of the sacredness of her own body. She must be shown how a persistence in secret vice will undermine her health, prostrate her nervous system, weaken her mental powers and degrade her morally. She must be told that, to a certain degree, it will render her unfit to fulfill the functions of her sex, to which fulfillment, in the course of nature, she will probably be called. She must be reminded what her own feelings will be, should she ever become the wife of an honorable and virtuous man, in remembering that there is one act or series of acts in her life which she can never confess to him except with burning shame. Her full confidence must be invited and secured, and the mother must offer to be her aid in the correction of her evil habit. It should seem to be regarded more as a disease than as a crime. If all efforts fail in effecting a cure, then, still in the spirit of kindness and pity, the girl should be told that a physician will have to be consulted to devise a means of cure. If she have any shame left, this threat, offered not as a threat, however, ought to be sufficient.
Treatment for Self-Abuse.—Frequent bathings in both cold and warm water of the private parts may give some slight aid toward overcoming the habit of self-abuse. A tepid sitz bath at the moment of temptation would no doubt do good. The diet should be of the plainest kind, and all spices and stimulants, of whatever nature, should be absolutely forbidden. Sedentary employments should be abandoned as much as possible, and active labor substituted in their stead. The girl should be forbidden all reading of an imaginative character. She should be left alone as little as possible during the day, and some responsible person should sleep with her at night. If with all these cautions the habit seems uncontrollable, medical advice should be sought. It may be possible that there is abnormal development of the generative organs which requires medical or surgical treatment. If so serious measures as these do not seem necessary, an application of caustic might be made to the affected parts, which would effectually prevent their being touched.
Boarding-School Life.—If I had no objections against the curriculum and the mode of instruction in most of our female seminaries and boarding-schools, I should still firmly refuse to send a daughter to one of them, for this reason, if no other, that I believe—nay, I know—that the moral atmosphere of such schools is always. more or less vitiated. It is not the fault of the instructors or of the faculty. It is so in spite of them. In the close contact which necessarily exists between the pupils, a very small proportion of evil-disposed and morally-debased girls is sufficient to corrupt the whole at the impressionable age at which girls attend these schools. The dormitory system—or, what is little better, the huddling of several girls in a single sleeping-apartment—is sufficient to destroy all personal modesty; and when this is gone, the bulwark of the girl's innocence is broken down. It is in these institutions that secret vice flourishes to a degree scarcely to be believed. Occasionally facts become public; parents are alarmed ; and the innocent and guilty are alike reproached and covered with shame. Miss Catherine E. Beecher, herself for many years a teacher in such an institution, was among the first to speak earnest words of warning on this subject; but though she discovered the evil, she did not comprehend the cause. It is the false system which is to blame.
Advantages of Co-Education of the Sexes.—There is no doubt that the two sexes exert a restraining and an elevating influence upon each other, and where they are mingled in educational institutions on the same terms of freedom and equality as in the home, there the standard of morality will be found to be the highest. This I would dare to say on my own authority and as a result of my own observation, but happily for those who might not be inclined to accept me as a competent judge, this fact is borne out by the experience, in some cases of many years, of numerous educational institutions of different grades. Any approach to a monastic or conventual life is, except in peculiar cases, unfortunate if not positively evil in its influences. It is exactly the opposite of the family. If God had intended such a life to be led by his creatures, he would have made whole families, whole communities even, of one sex alone. We all know the moral status of even our most noted colleges, and we ought also to know that, in a different way, of course, but still equally bad, is that of a female boarding-school.
Means of Cure of Evil Habits.—There is one course that may of itself be sufficient to effect a cure for secret vice in a girl approaching womanhood. It may seem a strange one to many, but I speak with perfect confidence in the truth of what I say when I give the advice. There will no harm result, even if its effects are not as beneficial as expected. Let the young girl who is upon the threshold of womanhood, with the instincts of her sex already beginning to develop themselves, be thrown into the frequent (if constant so much the better) companionship of young persons of the other sex of good character, so far as character may be said to be established so early in life. Each will have a beneficial effect upon the other. The girl will, from her respect for the other sex, conceive a higher idea of womanhood and a greater respect for herself. The restraints which the presence of her male companions impose will remain in effect in their absence, and habits which she has heretofore considered as mere venial offences will suddenly assume a more serious magnitude. Self-consciousness of guilt will be always present, and the chances are two to one that the vice will be dropped.